Young and Bipartisan Senators Introduce Resolution Calling for Release of Imprisoned Journalists

According to a press release, U.S. Senator Todd Young (R-Ind.), Senator Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), and Senator Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) — all members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee —along with Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, have introduced a Senate resolution calling for the immediate release of two Reuters journalists Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo who are imprisoned in Burma. The reporters were arrested last December for reporting on the ethnic cleansing against Myanmar’s Rohingya minority, and they were recently sentenced to seven years in prison. Specifically, the resolution calls for the convictions against Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo to be nullified, and calls upon President Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to immediately engage Myanmar at the highest levels possible in order to secure the release of these two journalists. It also calls upon Secretary Pompeo to make a determination on whether the actions of Myanmar’s security forces constitute genocide or crimes against humanity, and to work to impose appropriate sanctions on high-ranking military officials. Senators Merkley, Rubio, Young, and Warren were joined on the resolution by Senators Chris Coons (D-Del.), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Ben Cardin (D-Md.), James Lankford (R-Okla.), Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Susan Collins (R-Maine), and Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.).